Path of Paradox (Western)
The western Path of Paradox is a Path of Enlightenment that existed since the Roman Empire among the Ravnos who traveled from India to Europe. During the centuries of division from their eastern brethren, the path changed drastically, until only few elements of the original Path remained. The ideology now focuses on understanding the truth of weig. Eastern Ravnos (and many other Kindred) view this branch as heretical and a mere excuse for theft, diablerie, and other crimes against society. Many attempts to purge this Path were initiated, but up to this date, some of the western Ravnos (and particularly annoying Malkavians) still cling to this Path. Adherents are called Shilmulo.Shilmulo also has a more generic meaning in the World of Darkness. Overview This variant of the Path of Paradox teaches that all existence is fluid and malleable. Nothing is permanent or real. The universe is an ever-shifting vortex, and all in it is composed of variable amounts of ethereal matter. This matter is referred to as "weig" by those on this Path. Eons ago, however, a great blasphemy was committed. Twelve beings who were momentarily filled with great amounts of weig decided to retain that weig instead of spewing it into the void when the time came. These beings then began to suck in even more weig – enough to allow them power, and mold the surrounding chaos to their will. These 12 beings became the vampire Antediluvians, and proceeded to sculpt reality into a fixed shape that would enable them to retain their weig, and thus their power. Because even they could not entirely resist the universe's call to release their weig, the Antediluvians periodically exuded small amounts of their weig, molding them into their own images. Thus were other vampires created. Just as their progenitors blasphemously consume the universe's weig, so do vampires consume earth's stuff of life, blood. Of course, the Antediluvians plan to reabsorb their weig in due time. On this night – the night of Gehenna, or the Flux – the 12 Antediluvians, acting in concert and devouring the power of their children, plan to shape the universe permanently into the gray and stagnant mausoleum-realm that is their ideal. But the Antediluvians' abomination did not go unnoticed. A vortex-being, given momentary sentience by a random fluctuation in the weig, decided to fight the newly created Antediluvians on their own terms. This being retained its own weig, gaining sufficient power in the process to battle the Antediluvians – indeed, to become as they. This being sired the Ravnos clan to assist it, and became the 13th Antediluvian, though only the followers of this Path know that this "Antediluvian" exists only to disrupt the others' plans. As a result, the western Ravnos see it as their duty to disrupt social norms and change others' perception of what they perceive to be reality, all to devour and destroy the creations of the Antediluvians. Their favorite methods for so doing are through trickery and theft. Ultimately, however, the weig must be released into the vortex. Ravnos who are advanced students of this Path actively seek to do so. They seek out items that retain weig – "magic" items, Lupine fetishes, and the like – and destroy them. The most powerful members of this Path seek out vampires with great amounts of weig – of low generation – and do likewise. Ethics * Reality is what one makes it * Free all weig into the vortex * Existence is a lie, produced by the dark dreams of the Antediluvians * The farther one is from the Antediluvians, the less real one is * Alter reality as much as possible, for Gehenna drives nearer every night * Always prank those who serve the Antediluvians, particularly their childer Hierarchy of Sins Gallery The Path of Paradox - VTES.jpg|''The Path of Paradox'' VTES card. Art by Brian LeBlanc References * * Category:Paths **